The clay fraction of the sedimentary succession beneath the Mahakam Delta (eastern Kalimantan, Indonesia) consists mainly of mixed-layer illite-smectite, with minor amounts of kaolinite and/or dickite, discrete detrital illite and chlorite. On the near-shore anticline, evolution of this mixed-layer material is characterized by a decrease in expandability with depth. The mechanism of conversion of smectite to illite layers depends on the lithology of the host rocks: it evolves along a solid-state transformation in the shales and a dissolution-precipitation in the sandstones.

Illite fundamental particles from two sandstones buried at ∼4000 m in the Tambora field next to the Handil field on the same near-shore anticline yield a mean K-Ar age of 15.7±1.6 Ma (2σ), which is younger than the stratigraphic age but still slightly biased by minute amounts of discrete detrital illite. Recalculated after modeling, which takes into account the occurrence of the discrete detrital illite, this K-Ar age becomes 14.4±0.7 Ma. The K-Ar values of the fundamental particles from associated buried shales are significantly older, which can be explained by a mixture of (1) a precursor material similar to that presently deposited in the delta of the Mahakam River, and (2) authigenic fundamental particles incorporating Ar with a 40Ar/36Ar ratio above atmospheric value during nucleation and growth on the same detrital precursor.

Application of the modeling to the burial evolution of <0.4 µm particles from both the shales and the sandstones of the basin points to a contribution of detrital micaceous material in both lithologies, (1) in the sandstones as a detrital component dissolving progressively and mixed mechanically with the authigenic fundamental particles, and (2) in the shales as a detrital precursor progressively releasing radiogenic 40Ar by burial alteration, and at the same time acting as a support for the fundamental particles for the growth of authigenic fundamental particles that were found to incorporate Ar characterized by an excess of 40Ar.

This study aimed to determine lactoferrin (LF) in breast milk-based powders and formulas. Lactoferrin is an important whey protein in all mammalian milks and is responsible in large part for the known antimicrobial effects of human milk in particular. As breast feeding is not always possible, formulas based on cows milk have been developed in order to meet the nutritional needs of the newborn, while more recently human breast milk-based powders have been introduced to offer the biological functionality of human milk to pre-term and critically ill babies. In the present work, the amount of LF in commercial breast milk-based powders was tested by a validated RF-HPLC method for the determination of LF in breast milk in order to examine both the applicability of the method but at a second level the amount of LF in these commercial products. The detection of LF was possible but the complexity of the matrix lead us to the use the standard addition methodology in order to achieve quantification. The results indicated that breast milk-based powders had higher amount of LF than cows milk-based formulas, both non-fortified and fortified.

The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) appearance of the brain and spinal cord in humans with neuroangiostrongyliasis (NA) due to Angiostrongylus cantonensis infection has been well reported. Equivalent studies in animals are lacking. This case series describes clinical and MRI findings in 11 dogs with presumptively or definitively diagnosed NA. MRI of the brain and/or spinal cord was performed using high-field (1.5 T) or low-field (0.25 T) scanners using various combinations of transverse, sagittal, dorsal and three-dimensional (3D) T1-weighted (T1W), transverse, sagittal and dorsal T2-weighted (T2W), T2W fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) and T2*-weighted (T2*W) gradient echo (GRE), dorsal T2W short tau inversion recovery (STIR) and post-gadolinium transverse, sagittal, dorsal and 3D T1W and transverse T2W FLAIR sequences. In 4/6 cases where the brain was imaged, changes consistent with diffuse meningoencephalitis were observed. Evidence of meningeal involvement was evident even when not clinically apparent. The spinal cord was imaged in 9 dogs, with evidence of meningitis and myelitis detected in regions consistent with the observed neuroanatomical localization. Pathognomonic changes of neural larva migrans, as described in some human patients with NA, were not detected. NA should be considered in the differential diagnosis of dogs with MRI evidence of focal or diffuse meningitis, myelitis and/or encephalitis, especially in areas where A. cantonensis is endemic. If not precluded by imaging findings suggestive of brain herniation, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collection for cytology, fluid analysis, real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) testing should be considered mandatory in such cases after the MRI studies.

The principal aim of this study was to optimize the diagnosis of canine neuroangiostrongyliasis (NA). In total, 92 cases were seen between 2010 and 2020. Dogs were aged from 7 weeks to 14 years (median 5 months), with 73/90 (81%) less than 6 months and 1.7 times as many males as females. The disease became more common over the study period. Most cases (86%) were seen between March and July. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was obtained from the cisterna magna in 77 dogs, the lumbar cistern in f5, and both sites in 3. Nucleated cell counts for 84 specimens ranged from 1 to 146 150 cells μL−1 (median 4500). Percentage eosinophils varied from 0 to 98% (median 83%). When both cisternal and lumbar CSF were collected, inflammation was more severe caudally. Seventy-three CSF specimens were subjected to enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) testing for antibodies against A. cantonensis; 61 (84%) tested positive, titres ranging from <100 to ⩾12 800 (median 1600). Sixty-one CSF specimens were subjected to real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) testing using a new protocol targeting a bioinformatically-informed repetitive genetic target; 53/61 samples (87%) tested positive, CT values ranging from 23.4 to 39.5 (median 30.0). For 57 dogs, it was possible to compare CSF ELISA serology and qPCR. ELISA and qPCR were both positive in 40 dogs, in 5 dogs the ELISA was positive while the qPCR was negative, in 9 dogs the qPCR was positive but the ELISA was negative, while in 3 dogs both the ELISA and qPCR were negative. NA is an emerging infectious disease of dogs in Sydney, Australia.

Here we provide an update of the 2013 report on the Nigerian Twin and Sibling Registry (NTSR). The major aim of the NTSR is to understand genetic and environmental influences and their interplay in psychological and mental health development in Nigerian children and adolescents. Africans have the highest twin birth rates among all human populations, and Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. Due to its combination of large population and high twin birth rates, Nigeria has one of the largest twin populations in the world. In this article, we provide current updates on the NTSR samples recruited, recruitment procedures, zygosity assessment and findings emerging from the NTSR.

The Netherlands Twin Register (NTR) is a national register in which twins, multiples and their parents, siblings, spouses and other family members participate. Here we describe the NTR resources that were created from more than 30 years of data collections; the development and maintenance of the newly developed database systems, and the possibilities these resources create for future research. Since the early 1980s, the NTR has enrolled around 120,000 twins and a roughly equal number of their relatives. The majority of twin families have participated in survey studies, and subsamples took part in biomaterial collection (e.g., DNA) and dedicated projects, for example, for neuropsychological, biomarker and behavioral traits. The recruitment into the NTR is all inclusive without any restrictions on enrollment. These resources — the longitudinal phenotyping, the extended pedigree structures and the multigeneration genotyping — allow for future twin-family research that will contribute to gene discovery, causality modeling, and studies of genetic and cultural inheritance.

Twin registries often take part in large collaborative projects and are major contributors to genome-wide association (GWA) meta-analysis studies. In this article, we describe genotyping of twin-family populations from Australia, the Midwestern USA (Avera Twin Register), the Netherlands (Netherlands Twin Register), as well as a sample of mothers of twins from Nigeria to assess the extent, if any, of genetic differences between them. Genotyping in all cohorts was done using a custom-designed Illumina Global Screening Array (GSA), optimized to improve imputation quality for population-specific GWA studies. We investigated the degree of genetic similarity between the populations using several measures of population variation with genotype data generated from the GSA. Visualization of principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the Australian, Dutch and Midwestern American populations exhibit negligible interpopulation stratification when compared to each other, to a reference European population and to globally distant populations. Estimations of fixation indices (FST values) between the Australian, Midwestern American and Netherlands populations suggest minimal genetic differentiation compared to the estimates between each population and a genetically distinct cohort (i.e., samples from Nigeria genotyped on GSA). Thus, results from this study demonstrate that genotype data from the Australian, Dutch and Midwestern American twin-family populations can be reasonably combined for joint-genetic analysis.

Designing products with a focus on self-explanatory assembly can reduce the use of procedural instructions and the associated problems. This paper describes how different groups of students, in two different design-engineering courses designed or redesigned products in an attempt to make the assembly of the product self-explanatory. The design outcomes are discussed in relation to the design context and linked to existing theory on design for meaning.

Bovine trichomoniasis is a notifiable, reproductive disease of cattle caused by the parasite Tritrichomonas foetus. Culturing with modified Diamond's medium (MDM) is required to increase the low number of organisms received from a preputial sample, but is limited in application to remote areas as it requires continuous cold chain storage. This study utilized lyophilization to sustain the viability of MDM during transport in lieu of a continuous cold chain. All lyophilized MDM was able to sustain T. foetus after storage for 42 days at 24 °C, and the results demonstrated that lyophilized MDM was equally as viable as refrigerated liquid MDM. Storage of lyophilized MDM at room temperature for 1 and 7 days did not impact T. foetus yield, both with and without exposure to light. A limitation of the lyophilized MDM was demonstrated with a significant decrease in T. foetus yield when the media was stored at 37 and 58 °C. The lyophilization of MDM provides a robust method of transporting and storing medium prior to reconstitution and inoculation, for use in T. foetus diagnosis and surveillance in remote areas.

In 2009, the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) for major depressive disorder (MDD) highlighted an association with PCLO locus on chromosome 7, although not reaching genome-wide significance level. In the present study, we revisited the original GWAS after increasing the overall sample size and the number of interrogated SNPs. In an analysis comparing 1,942 cases with lifetime diagnosis of MDD and 4,565 controls, PCLO showed a genome-wide significant association with MDD at SNP (rs2715157, p = 2.91 × 10−8) and gene-based (p = 1.48 × 10−7) level. Our results confirm the potential role of the PCLO gene in MDD, which is worth further replication and functional studies.

Approximately half of the variation in wellbeing measures overlaps with variation in personality traits. Studies of non-human primate pedigrees and human twins suggest that this is due to common genetic influences. We tested whether personality polygenic scores for the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) domains and for item response theory (IRT) derived extraversion and neuroticism scores predict variance in wellbeing measures. Polygenic scores were based on published genome-wide association (GWA) results in over 17,000 individuals for the NEO-FFI and in over 63,000 for the IRT extraversion and neuroticism traits. The NEO-FFI polygenic scores were used to predict life satisfaction in 7 cohorts, positive affect in 12 cohorts, and general wellbeing in 1 cohort (maximal N = 46,508). Meta-analysis of these results showed no significant association between NEO-FFI personality polygenic scores and the wellbeing measures. IRT extraversion and neuroticism polygenic scores were used to predict life satisfaction and positive affect in almost 37,000 individuals from UK Biobank. Significant positive associations (effect sizes <0.05%) were observed between the extraversion polygenic score and wellbeing measures, and a negative association was observed between the polygenic neuroticism score and life satisfaction. Furthermore, using GWA data, genetic correlations of -0.49 and -0.55 were estimated between neuroticism with life satisfaction and positive affect, respectively. The moderate genetic correlation between neuroticism and wellbeing is in line with twin research showing that genetic influences on wellbeing are also shared with other independent personality domains.

The Pediatric and Congenital Electrophysiology Society (PACES) is a non-profit organisation comprised of individuals dedicated to improving the care of children and young adults with cardiac rhythm disturbances. Although PACES is a predominantly North American-centric organisation, international members have been a part of PACES for the last two decades. This year, PACES expanded its North American framework into a broadly expansive international role. On 12 May, 2015, paediatric electrophysiology leaders from within the United States of America and Canada met with over 30 international paediatric electrophysiologists from 17 countries and five continents discussing measures to (1) expand PACES’ global vision, (2) address ongoing challenges such as limited resource allocation that may be present in developing countries, (3) expand PACES’ governance to include international representation, (4) promote joint international sessions at future paediatric EP meetings, and (5) facilitate a global multi-centre research consortium. This meeting marked the inception of a formal international collaborative spirit in PACES. This editorial addresses some solutions to breakdown the continental silos paediatric electrophysiologists have practiced within; however, there remain ongoing limitations, and future discussions will be needed to continue to move the PACES global international vision forward.

Monozygotic (MZ) twins are genetically identical at conception, making them informative subjects for studies on somatic mutations. Copy number variants (CNVs) are responsible for a substantial part of genetic variation, have relatively high mutation rates, and are likely to be involved in phenotypic variation. We conducted a genome-wide survey for post-twinning de novo CNVs in 1,097 MZ twin pairs. Comparisons between MZ twins were made by CNVs measured in DNA from blood or buccal epithelium with the Affymetrix 6.0 microarray and two calling algorithms. In addition, CNV concordance rates were compared between the different sources of DNA, and gene-enrichment association analyses were conducted for thought problems (TP) and attention problems (AP) using CNVs concordant within MZ pairs. We found a total of 153 putative post-twinning de novo CNVs >100 kb, of which the majority resided in 15q11.2. Based on the discordance of raw intensity signals a selection was made of 20 de novo CNVs for a qPCR validation experiments. Two out of 20 post-twinning de novo CNVs were validated with qPCR in the same twin pair. The 13-year-old MZ twin pair that showed two discordances in CN in 15q11.2 in their buccal DNA did not show large phenotypic differences. From the remaining 18 putative de novo CNVs, 17 were deletions or duplications that were concordant within MZ twin pairs. Concordance rates within twin pairs of CNV calls with CN ≠ 2 were ~80%. Buccal epithelium-derived DNA showed a slightly but significantly higher concordance rate, and blood-derived DNA showed significantly more concordant CNVs per twin pair. The gene-enrichment analyses on concordant CNVs showed no significant associations between CNVs overlapping with genes involved in neuronal processes and TP or AP after accounting for the source of DNA.